Why Not
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: SEQUEL TO SPECIAL. Beck and Cat aren't actually a couple, or are they? PLEASE REVIEW. Beck/Cat.
1. A Lie

Jade West looked happy. Four years of experience told Beck Oliver that this was not a good sign. Not when she was heading straight for him. The look in her eye was the I'm-glad-you're-here-because-now-I- can- be-snide sort of look that she generally reserved for Robbie, Sinjun, and Tori.

"Here." She handed him an invitation to her birthday party. "Couples only."

Ahh. There it was. She wanted to see him squirm.

His first inclination was to hand the invitation back and walk away. Better yet, lie and turn the tables on her.

"Great. We'll see you there."

"I did say it was couples only, right?" Her smile was slipping in a very satisfying way.

"Yep. No problem."

The rest of their usual crew came up in time to hear Jade ask in disgust, "So, wait, you have another girlfriend already? Just like that?"

He nodded like it was no big deal, lying the whole time.

"Who?" Jade questioned devilishly.

Beck opened his mouth to say "a Northridge girl". Instead he heard Cat pipe up, saying, "Me."

The whole group went absolutely stone-still, except for Cat, who elbowed her way past Robbie and Andre. She came over and stood at Beck's side.

"No way." Jade laughed before sneering, "You?" She turned to Beck. "Cat?"

Beck nodded, still a little dazed, and put his arm around Cat's shoulders.

"I'm Beck's new girlfriend." Cat said cheerfully.

Sweet, childlike Cat had just kicked a huge hornet's nest.

Jade chose that instant to lunge for Cat. Cat screamed and dove behind Beck, making herself as small as possible. It took Beck pushing Jade away and Andre pulling her away to make her quit trying to claw her way to Cat.

Jade finally stepped back. She shoved Andre away and flipped a lock of hair out of her face. Her expression morphed into one of steely calm.

She said, "Fine. I'll see you both on Friday night. 7 o'clock sharp. Don't be late."

She turned and stalked away.

Beck turned around. Cat was shaking behind where he had stood.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Is she gone?" Cat squeaked. Her hands covered her eyes.

"Yeah."

Cat uncovered her eyes. "You saved me again."

He shrugged. "She's not actually capable of murder. At least I don't think she is."

"So…" Tori sidled up to him, grinning goofily. "You and Cat, huh?" Her eyes were bright with nosiness.

"It's news to me, too." Beck promised.

"But Cat said-"

"I lied. I'm not Beck's girlfriend." Cat broke in. "He doesn't have one."

"Jade expects you two to be together at her party, though." Andre pointed out.

Beck looked at Cat. She was looking back up at him. Waiting for him to make a decision?

"So, Cat," He swallowed.

Why was he so nervous?" He didn't do nervous. Did this even qualify as actually asking her out?

"Do you want to be a couple for a night?"

"Sure." Cat squeaked.

The bell rang and the kids all scattered, but Beck grabbed Cat's arm and asked, "How did you know I was lying?"

"You wouldn't have kissed me yesterday if you already had a girlfriend. You're not like that."

Beck let her go and watched her disappear around the corner. She seemed so simple, but every once in a while she would throw a wrench into her little-girl persona.

He liked that serious, even smart, side of Cat. If he was honest, he just liked Cat Valentine.

Besides, it was just one party. Why not?

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><p><strong>Review, please, and check out my other stories and poll. You'll have to ask if you want to see more. Thanks. :)<strong>


	2. A Dare

The next afternoon during lunch, Jade came over and sat down between Andre and Beck. She'd been steering clear of Beck since they had broken up, so this sent warning bells off inside Beck's head.

"So, Beck," Jade asked. "You didn't kiss Cat this morning. Why not?"

"I came in late."

She was referencing the fact that at some point on every "T" day – Tuesday and Thursday – morning he would kiss his girlfriend. He'd even been stupid enough to tell her that he'd done it with most of his girlfriends. So naturally she expected him to kiss Cat.

Jade was watching them too. That was just great.

It was no hard thing to take Cat to a party, in fact he was glad to do it. Keeping up the act until the party? That was going to be harder.

"You would do it now then." Jade was one step away from taunting him.

Beck looked at Cat. _Why not? _Cat was sitting on his other side, a pure coincidence.

He leaned in and kissed her, lingering because of how easy it was.

Cat yelped when he pulled away. A smile bloomed on her face, accenting her positively huge brown eyes.

He really liked her eyes. But, man, her smile was definitely her best feature. He had always liked her smile. Now he allowed himself the pleasure of knowing that she was smiling like that because of him. And he was smiling right back.

Jade got up and walked away, her eyes full of fury.

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><p><strong>Review, please, and check out my other stories and poll. You'll have to ask if you want to see more of this story. Thanks. :)<strong>


	3. A Question

"Hey, Cat?" Beck jogged to catch up with Cat at the end of the school day.

She looked up at him expectantly. "Yeah?"

"Do you want to come to my house and study?"

"Now?"

"Yeah."

"Kay kay. Do you want to be partners in the script-writing project?"

"Sure. Come on, I'll drive you."

In Beck's RV, they settled on opposite ends of his couch. He dug out his laptop and pulled up a document-maker program.

"How about a sci-fi?" he suggested.

Cat crinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Okay."

"We could make an alternate ending to Twilight."

"That's all ready been done this semester. A historical maybe?"

"We could start with them getting an email that somebody died."

"Let's not do that."

"Maybe we could write a forbidden love."

Beck sat Indian-style, his laptop resting his knees. He swept a strand of hair out of his eyes. "Like the lady and the stable boy?"

"Or the lord and maid."

"That would probably be easier. Okay. When and where?"

"You have a good English accent." Cat pointed out.

Beck smiled anf demonstrated with a "'ello gov'ner." He was rewarded with a giggle from Cat.

"England then?" Beck asked.

"Yeah."

"1860s?"

Cat shrugged. "Sure."

"What are the characters names?"

"Lord… Beckham!"

"And?"

"You pick." She pulled her legs up under her and sat on them.

He thought for a minute. "Cate," He decided. "With a 'c'."

She clapped her hands with glee, then they got to it. They typed the whole script and did there other homework, just enjoying being together. By the time they had finished it all, it had gotten dark.

Beck set aside his book, asking, "Aren't your parents wondering where you are?"

"I called them on my way here. There's no time I have to be home by."

"In that case, there's microwavable burritos in the freezer if you want to stay and eat with me."

"Kay, kay."

"Great." Beck launched himself off of the couch and popped some burritos into the microwave. "There's some Dr. Fizz in the fridge if you want one."

She grabbed two and tossed him one. He opened it and took a long swig before turning his back to her to get the burritos from the microwave.

"What are we doing?" She asked the back of his head.

"We're having burritos." He answered, hoping to avoid the big picture.

"I mean this whole thing. Is this a date? We told Jade we're a couple even though we're not and not we're doing all of these things just the two of us. But we're not together."

"Aren't' we?" Beck asked, turning around. "What about the kiss-es?"

Cat blinked in surprise at him before saying, "You felt it too?"

Beck set the plate on the table. "Of course I did. Couldn't you tell?"

She shrugged. "We're actors. I thought…" she let the sentence trail off.

"Was I acting the day of the earthquake? Was I acting just now?"

Cat's brow creased. "Just-"

He cut her off with a long kiss. "Yeah, just now."

"No." she squeaked.

"So let's make it official. Do you want to be my girlfriend, Cat?"

"Yes." She rose onto her tiptoes and kissed him again.

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><p><strong>Review, please, and check out my other stories and poll. Okay, you guys, here's the deal: I really feel like I need to finish "Last Chance", so I'm going to mark this story as complete and then make a sequel later, make a trilogy, I guess. Please don't be mad at me! :)<strong>


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